My review of He’s Just Not That Into You, which I saw with Kaitlyn today, for the Charlatan. It should appear in the Features section on Thursday, though most likely in a better form as the Features editor will fix it up nicely!

Can six simple words change your life, and your friend’s lives, forever? According to He’s Just Not That Into You, yes, they can. Based on the book by the same title, this movie puts the theories behind the bestselling self help book to work on a bunch of unsuspecting fictional characters. The rules?

1)No man wants to get married. And the ones who cave are all just thinking about all the women they won’t get to sleep with now. Except the guy who really wants to get married, and the guy who doesn’t believe in marriage. Oh, and the other guy who thinks he doesn’t want to get married. Right, so it’s just the guy who’s unhappily married, then?2)Women over analyze relationships. Not a new concept. The movie assumes that women sit around talking about their relationships when they should be working, that we script phone messages before we leave them and that we see life altering meaning in small signs. This is all baffling to men, because men simply just make a relationship happen if they’re into a girl. For Gigi, the main character, this epiphany leads her to stop obsessing about break ups. For me, this just seemed stereotypical.3)You need to ask for what you want from a relationship. Finally, a worthwhile idea. Yes, you can demand to be treated the way you want to and stand up for what’s important to you! I can feel the self helping effects already!4)Ultimately, all of the rules and exceptions are wrong and it’s about love. Yup. Whether you’re a hopeless romantic, unhappily married, eternally single or just plain tired of being strung around by someone whose just not that into you, as long as you keep believing in love, it’s all worth it in the end.

This movie has all the typical pieces of a romantic comedy, from the hilarious dating mishaps to the final “aww” moments. A movie about guys not being into Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly and Drew Barrymore (of course everyone’s into Scarlett Johansson) is obviously purely fictional. So, watch it as it is, another romantic comedy fairy tale, and try not to take it as self help. It’s good date movie, but maybe awkward for a first date, especially if he’s looking for a way to tell you he’s just not that into you.